Fantasy Flight Games Merging With Asmodee

David M. Ewalt
, ContributorI focus on the intersection of games and technology.Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

Paris-based board game giant Asmodee announced on Monday that it is merging with independent U.S. publisher Fantasy Flight Games. It's Asmodee's second major North American acquisition in the last three months, and more evidence of the company's desire to expand out of European markets.

Roseville, Minnesota-based Fantasy Flight was founded in 1995 by CEO Christian T. Petersen, and its first product was a game of his own design, the sci-fi strategy title Twilight Imperium. Since then the company has become best known for publishing games based on licensed properties, including Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, and Battlestar Galactica. The company also publishes well-regarded proprietary titles including Arkham Horror and Descent: Journeys in the Dark.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Fantasy Flight Games will continue to operate out of its Minnesota headquarters, and Petersen will stay on as CEO. He will also become "a significant shareholder" of the newly combined entity, according to a press release.

The merger will allow Fantasy Flight to improve its distribution in Europe, while simultaneously giving Asmodee Group access to Fantasy Flight’s North American sales and marketing teams.

Asmodee is already one of the biggest distributors of board and trading card games in Europe, where it handles brands including Dixit, 7 Wonders and Pokémon. In recent years, the firm has been increasing efforts to expand into North America and Asia; on August 25 of this year Asmodee announced a similar merger with Days of Wonder, a Los Altos, California game publisher best known for the award-winning 2004 board game Ticket to Ride.

By acquiring mid-sized publishers like Days of Wonder and Fantasy Flight, the company is positioning itself to compete better against multinational toy giants like
Hasbro and
Mattel, who publish top board game brands including Monopoly and Scrabble.